FanDuel Raises Rake in September’s Gambling Industry Recap

September was another solid month for gambling, poker and casino industry news. From some big news in the daily fantasy sports seen to some major changes for some big gambling operators, there was enough to chew on – even with the NFL season coming back in full force.

To re-hash the month that was, we peeled back the layers of September to see which big gambling news stories were worth touching on again:

Unibet Rebrands as Kindred Group

Unibet Group board of directors are reportedly seeking a rebranding. Per reports, the company would like to change the name of Kindred Group.

The idea behind the proposed change is to eliminate confusion between Unibet Group and the company’s consumer brand, Unibet. Company shareholders will vote to approve the change later in December.

Betfred Loses CEO

Change is coming up top with Betfred, the Warrington-based bookmaker. Per reports, long-time CEO John Haddock is stepping down from his role of more than 30 years. Haddock has not given a reason for his surprise departure.

Haddock enjoyed the role of Chief Executive Officer at Betfred since 2014, when he took over for Betfred founder, Fred Done. Haddock had previously held the position of Managing Director with the company, and was promoted to take over full-time.

Betfred thanked Haddock for his 30 years of service with the company, stating that the company thrived thanks to “loyal” and “unblemished” abilities.

Betfred did not immediately announce a replacement plan for Haddock, but may quickly need to promote or bring on someone to fill the key role. With major news of Betfred expecting to acquire a large amount of Ladbrokes and Coral betting shops, they’ll surely need high level direction in the near future.

Ladbrokes to Sponsor Four Nations

Ladbrokes will be getting it’s hands into the rugby scene. Per reports, the gambling operator has inked a new deal with England’s Rugby Football League to take over as the main sponsor of the 2016 Four Nations tournament.

The step into the rugby arena isn’t at all a stretch, with Ladbrokes already being a sponsor of the Challenge Cup, as well as the Super League. This move should allow for high level exposure for the Ladbrokes brand, which will be seen front and center for seven Four Nations tourney games.

Ladbrokes Four Nations tourney director Jon Dutton cited Ladbrokes’ professionalism and excellent approach to the game as reasons why they made for the perfect partner.

Canada Loses Single-Game Sports Betting

Canada was hoping to push through new law that would allow single-game sports betting. Unfortunately, lawmakers denied the proposal and that (at least for now) simply won’t be the case.

Lawmakers voted on C-221 in September, a bill introduced by Brian Masse that was designed to scrap a single line of the Criminal Code that prevented provincial gambling monopolies from offering any betting other than parlay sports wagers.

FanDuel Raises Rake

Die hard daily fantasy football gamers got a bit of bad news this past month, as FanDuel followed some new site wide changes with an increase in their rake. The popular DFS operator had already been making waves by overhauling their entire website and main strategy, and decided to not stop in the “trying to make more money” arena.

FanDuel’s rake boost was in full force in week three of the 2016 NFL season, where they’ll now take a 15% rake on customer’s buy-ins. By comparison, the new rake jumps to roughly 2% and 5% more than it had previously.

The move doesn’t slight the big dogs in daily fantasy sports, however, with the rake only impacting entry fees of $25 or less. The move could make FD some extra cash in the short-term, but it could be interesting to see if non-sharks don’t opt to play elsewhere. DraftKings, FanDuel’s main competition, now fully beats their rake out, standing in at just over 13%.

Sports Betting Would Boost TV Ratings

While many of us probably assumed so already – especially with how popular daily fantasy sports have become – a recent survey suggests sports betting could dramatically improve TV ratings.

Naturally, the more involved people are in games (fantasy sports, betting on them), the more likely they are to gather around a screen and tune in live.

It’s a fair thought, but recent Nielsen data makes it almost a science. Per the American Gaming Association, the Nielsen findings suggest that those who bet on the NFL would on average watch 19 more pro football games, as opposed to those who don’t.

We didn’t need a survey to tell us the NFL and sports betting are/would be popular and work beautifully hand in hand. However, actual raw data is good to have, and could potentially be used in future lobbyings for future legal fights dealing with sports betting and daily fantasy sports.